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Pesto

From the book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

Ingredients

	2	cups tightly packed fresh basil leaves
	½	cup extra-virgin olive oil
	3	Tbsp. pine nuts
	2	garlic cloves, chopped fine before putting in the processor
	~	Salt
	⅓	cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
	2	Tbsp. freshly grated Romano cheese
	3	Tbsp. butter, softened to room temperature
	1½	lb. pasta

Steps

Briefly soak and wash the basil in cold water, and gently pat it thoroughly dry with paper towels.
Put the basil, olive oil, pine nuts, chopped garlic, and an ample pinch of salt in the processor bowl, and process to a uniform, creamy consistency.
Transfer to a bowl, and mix in the two grated cheeses by hand. (It is worth the slight effort to do it by hand to obtain the notably superior texture it produces.) When the cheese has been evenly amalgamated with the other ingredients, mix in the softened butter, distributing it uniformly into the sauce.
When spooning the pesto over pasta, dilute it slightly with a tablespoon or two of the hot water in which the pasta was cooked.

Notes

To freeze pesto, make the sauce through to the end of Step 2, and freeze it without cheese and butter in it. Add the cheese and butter when it is thawed, just before serving.

This content is from the book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.

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There is 1 comment on this item

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1. by Richard Yarnell on Jul 1, 2009 at 1:20 PM PDT

I’ve been freezing pesto for years, but NEVER in jars.

Assemble your pesto (I’ve not run into one that doesn’t freeze well)
to completion except for cheese. Using a spatula, carefully
fill all the cells of a plastic ice cube tray, being careful to force
out any air bubbles (it takes a little over two cups to fill an
ordinary tray). Place the tray in a plastic freezer bag and allow to
freeze solid. Twist the tray and remove the cubes to a plastic
freezer bag (I double bag). One cube roughly equals a serving when
you add cheese at the time of use. It takes about 15 minutes thaw a
cube. I usually set them out when I start to cook and add the cheese
separately to the dish.

I’ve not noticed any change in flavor in our -10F freezer for up to a
year. Note: I do not use butter. I use a good quality EVOO, never
add salt (draws water out of the leaves), do include pine nuts, garlic
and the herb of the day. If you use an herb that’s enhanced with a
little lemon juice, that can be included in the frozen mix.

Talk about elegant fast food....

Richard Yarnell
Beavercreek, OR

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